Activity 10.1 Modeling Photosynthesis: How Can Cells Use

the Sun’s Energy to Convert Carbon Dioxide and Water
into Glucose?

Activity 10.1 is designed to help you understand:

1. The roles photosystems I and II and the Calvin cycle play in photosynthesis
2. How and why C4 and CAM photosynthesis differ from C3 photosynthesis

Using your textbook, lecture notes, and the materials available in class (or those you
devise at home), model photosynthesis as it occurs in a plant cell.

Your model should be a dynamic (working or active) representation of the events that
occur in the various phases of C3 photosynthesis.
Building the Model
 Use chalk on a tabletop or a marker on a large sheet of paper to draw the cell
membrane and the chloroplast membranes.
 Use playdough or cutout pieces of paper to represent the molecules, ions, and
membrane transporters or pumps.
 Use the pieces you assembled to model the processes involved in C3
photosynthesis. Develop a dynamic (claymation-type) model that allows you to
manipulate or move carbon dioxide and water and its breakdown products
through the various steps of the process.
 When you feel you have developed a good working model, demonstrate and
explain it to another student or to your instructor.

Your model of C3 photosynthesis should include what occurs in photosystems I and II

and in the Calvin cycle. For photosystems I and II, be sure your model includes and
explains the roles of the following:

NADP ATP chemiosmosis

NADPH water and oxygen ATP synthase
ADP H
P i e
Also indicate where in the plant cell each item is required or produced.
For the Calvin cycle, be sure your model includes and explains the roles of the following:

glucose NADPH
C3 or 3C sugars ATP
carbon dioxide

Also indicate where in the plant cell each item is required or produced.

After you’ve modeled C3 photosynthesis, indicate how the system would be altered for C4
and CAM photosynthesis.
 Indicate where in the cells of the leaf PEP carboxylase exists and how it reacts to
capture CO2. Be sure to indicate the fate of the captured CO2.
 Do the same for PEP carboxylase in CAM plants.

Use your model and the information in Chapter 10 of Biology, 7th edition, to answer
the questions.
 1. The various reactions in photosynthesis are spatially segregated from each other
within the chloroplast. Draw a simplified diagram of a chloroplast and include these
parts: outer membrane, grana, thylakoid, lumen, stroma/matrix.

Refer to Figure 10.3, page 183, in Biology, 7th edition.

a. Where in the chloroplast do the light In the thylakoid membranes

reactions occur?
b. Where in the chloroplast is the Across the thylakoid membrane; H ions
chemiosmotic gradient developed? are pumped into the thylakoid space
c. Where in the chloroplast does the Calvin In the stroma or liquid portion of the
cycle occur ? chloroplast

2. In photosynthesis, the reduction of carbon dioxide to form glucose is carried out in a

controlled series of reactions. In general, each step or reaction in the sequence requires
the input of energy. The sun is the ultimate source of this energy.

a. What is/are the overall b. What is/are the overall c. What is/are the overall
function(s) of function(s) of function(s) of the Calvin
photosystem I? photosystem II? cycle?

In noncyclic Photosystem II generates The Calvin cycle uses the

photosphosphorylation,
photosystem I produces
NADPH. In cyclic
photophosphorylation,
photosystem I produces
ATP.
ATP. To fill the electron
hole in photosystem II,
water is split into 2 H, 2e,
and 1/2 O2. (The electron
from photosystem II fills
the electron hole in
photosystem I.)
ATP and NADPH
generated in the light
reactions to reduce CO2 to
three-carbon compounds in
a cyclic series of reactions
that regenerates the original
five-carbon sugar required
to accept the CO2. The
three-carbon compounds
can be used to make
glucose or other organic
compounds required by
the cells.
3. Are the compounds
listed here used or
produced in:
Photosystem I? Photosystem II? The Calvin cycle?

Glucose Produced
O2 Produced from the
breakdown of H2O
CO2 Used
H2O Used to produce 2
H, 2e, and 1/2 O2
ATP Produced (in Produced Used
cyclic
photophosphoryl-
ation)
ADP  P i Used Used Produced
NADPH Produced Used
NADP Used Produced

4. Which light reaction system (cyclic or noncyclic) would a chloroplast use in each
situation?

a. Plenty of light is available, but the cell b. There is plenty of light, and the cell
contains little NADP. contains a high concentration of
NADP.

If there is little NADP, there must be much
NADPH. This could occur if the Calvin cycle
is not using up the NADPH. For example, if
CO2 levels are low, little NADPH will be
used to make glucose. Under these
circumstances, the system would switch to
cyclic photophosphorylation and gain ATP,
which can be used both in photosynthesis and
in other types of metabolism.
In this case, it appears that NADPH is
being used rapidly (therefore the high
levels of NADP). As a result, the
system would switch to noncyclic
photophosphorylation, which produces
both ATP and NADPH.

5. All living organisms require a constant supply of ATP to maintain life. If no light is
available, how can a plant make ATP?
Keep in mind that it is not always light and that not all cells of a plant are directly
exposed to light. For example, cells on the interior of a plant stem and those in the roots
have little, if any, exposure to light. Plants, like other eukaryotic organisms on Earth, also
contain mitochondria. Plant cells undergo glycolysis in the cytoplasm and transfer acetyl
CoA to mitochondria, where it enters the Krebs cycle. The NADH and FADH2 produced
during the Krebs cycle then undergo oxidative phosphorylation to produce ATP.
   Activity 10.2 How Do C3, C4, and CAM Photosynthesis
Compare?

1. Carbon dioxide enters plant leaves through the stomata, while oxygen (the photo-
synthetic waste product) and water from the leaves exit through the stomata. Plants must
constantly balance both water loss and energy gain (as photosynthesis). This has led to
the evolution of various modifications of C3 photosynthesis.

C3 C4 CAM
Draw simplified
diagrams of the See Figure 10.3. See Figure 10.19. CAM leaf anatomy
cross sections of a is similar to C3 leaf
leaf from a C3 ,a C4 anatomy.
and a CAM plant.

a. How are the All have stomata, epidermal cells that lack chloroplasts, mesophyll
leaves similar? cells with chloroplasts, and veins that conduct water and the
products of photosynthesis.
b. How are the C4 plants have large bundle sheath cells not found in the others. In
leaves different? C4 plants, the Calvin cycle occurs only in the bundle sheath cells.
c. How and when During daylight During cooler parts At night, when it is
does carbon hours, when stomata of the day, when cool and stomata are
dioxide get into are open stomata are open open
each leaf?
d. Which The CO2 is picked PEP carboxylase in PEP carboxylase in
enzyme(s) up by the enzyme, the mesophyll cells the mesophyll cells
(1) capture rubisco, which converts CO2 to a converts CO2 to a
carbon dioxide catalyzes the first four-carbon organic four-carbon organic
and step in the Calvin acid, which is acid, which is
(2) carry it to the cycle. transported to the transported to the
Calvin cycle? bundle sheath cells, cells’ central
where it is vacuoles and can
converted to CO2 later be converted
and PEP, and back to CO2 and
rubisco catalyzes PEP. The CO2 can
the first step in the then be picked up
Calvin cycle. by rubisco and used
in the Calvin cycle
in mesophyll cells.
e. What makes C4 photosynthesis more efficient than C3 photosynthesis in tropical
climates?
PEP carboxylase is much more efficient than rubisco at picking up CO2. As a result, C4
plants can capture large quantities of CO2 and store it as a four-carbon organic compound
in a relatively short period of time. This means that during the hottest parts of the day, the
stomata can close to reduce water loss. Even with the stomata closed, however, the
Calvin cycle can continue by using the stored CO2. This system also maintains a
relatively high ratio of CO2 to O2 in the cells that rely on rubisco, the bundle sheath cells.
This greatly reduces the amount of photorespiration in these plants.

f. How is CAM photosynthesis advantageous in desert climates?

Stomata can be open at night when there is less evaporative loss of water and closed
during the day. At night, PEP carboxylase allows desert plants to store CO2 as a four-
carbon organic acid. However, the amount that can be stored in the central vacuole of its
photosynthetic cells is finite. This stored CO2 can then be used during the day to support
the Calvin cycle.

2. Photosynthesis evolved very early in Earth’s history. Central to the evolution of

photosynthesis was the evolution of the enzyme rubisco (an abbreviation for ribulose
bisphosphate carboxylase oxidase). To the best of our knowledge, all photosynthetic
plants use rubisco. Rubisco’s function is to supply carbon dioxide to the Calvin cycle;
however, it does this only if the ratio of carbon dioxide to oxygen is relatively high. (For
comparison, a relatively high ratio of carbon dioxide to oxygen is 0.03% carbon dioxide
to 20% oxygen.) When the carbon dioxide-to-oxygen ratio becomes low, the role of
rubisco switches and it catalyzes photorespiration, the breakdown of glucose to carbon
dioxide and water.

a. Why could we call photorespiration a “mistake” in the functioning of the cell?

Photorespiration could be called a “mistake” because under high O2/CO2 conditions,
rubisco breaks down glucose into carbon dioxide and water. No useful energy is gained
from this, however.

b. Rubisco is thought to have evolved when Earth had a reducing atmosphere. How does
this help explain this “mistake”?
When the first photosynthetic organisms arose, the early Earth’s atmosphere contained
little, if any, oxygen. Rubisco would have functioned very well under these conditions. It
was only later, when the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere increased
considerably, that rubisco’s ability to oxidize glucose became evident.
3. The metabolic pathways of organisms living today evolved over a long period of time
—undoubtedly in a stepwise fashion because of their complexity. Put the following
processes in the order in which they might have evolved, and give a
short explanation for your arrangement.

___ Krebs cycle

___ Electron transport
___ Glycolysis
___ Photosynthesis

First, glycolysis is found in all eukaryotes and many prokaryotes. It takes place in the
cytoplasm and can occur in the absence of oxygen.

Second, photosynthesis produces oxygen as a by-product. Neither the Krebs cycle nor
electron transport can occur in the absence of oxygen.

Third, electron transport is required to convert NADH to NAD. Because glycolysis

produces 2 ATP (net) and 2 NADH, the addition of electron transport represents an
advantage. Organisms can then gain 8 ATP (net) from glycolysis plus electron transport.

Fourth, the Krebs cycle cannot occur without a mechanism to convert NADH to NAD.
Electron transport must have evolved before the Krebs cycle.